Zimbabwe puts Mzembi on Interpol list, requests South Africa to arrest and hand him over

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi has been put on Interpol list as the state has requested the help of South African police to arrest and hand him over to the Zimbabwe public Police.

Mzembi is believed to be in hiding in South Africa and has deferred court hearings on several occasions citing ill health, prompting the state to call for Interpol’s intervention.

Prosecutor Brian Vito today handed over a letter to Magistrate Hosea Mujaya, requesting for a long remand for the other co-accused persons which the defence lawyers are opposing, following Mzembi’s default in court.

Prosecutor Vito said the state is now seeking to engage foreign police to search for Mzembi who is in South Africa for medical attention.

“The state wants to engage Interpol which is not legal according to the law in the versions of extradition act,” said one of the defence lawyers, Farai Mushoriwa.

Mushoriwa was requesting that the state should separate dockets until Mzembi appears since no one knows his whereabouts.

He also said that Interpol does not play any part when it comes to extradition and that the process must pass through the ministry and have a warrant of arrest which the state does not have.

However, Mzembi has since been slapped with a chain of warrants of arrests after failing to attend court.

The red alert on the former cabinet minister came a few days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he is disappointed with how corruption cases are moving.

Mnangagwa said this while officiating a new labour court opened in Harare, where he said the new dispensation’s mandate is to create a corruption-free community.263 Chat